CHARGER REVIEW : NOTEBOOK : Chargers’ Butts Peels Way to Victory

The key to the Chargers’ success: Bananas.

Running back Marion Butts left the game in the first half with blurred vision.

“I don’t eat a lot of potassium,” Butts said. “I had a deficiency, and it affected my vision. They gave me Gatorade and bananas, had me wait for 10 minutes, and then I went back in. It sounds weird, but it worked.”

Butts gained 92 yards on 15 carries against the NFL’s No. 1 rushing defense.

The Chargers threw a 12-man defense at the Saints and forced quarterback Steve Walsh to throw an incomplete pass in the closing moments of the first quarter.

The Chargers appeared to get away with the creative defensive alignment, but after making defensive substitutions on the following play, the instant replay official noticed that one player came into the game and two left the field.

He relayed this to the officials on the field and play was stopped. The officials came together, chatted and then a yellow flag went flying into the air.

The Chargers were penalized for illegal procedure and the Saints were given five yards and an opportunity to replay second down against 11 defenders.

Linebacker Billy Ray Smith had a wide open field in front of him as he stood in position to intercept a pass intended for running back Buford Jordan in the first quarter.

Smith, however, dropped the ball and then acted like a man who learned that he was one Lotto number away from winning millions. Smith fell to his knees, grabbed his helmet with both hands and then shook in frustration.

“That was a sure touchdown,” Smith said. “I’m just looking for that hand transplant any day now to come through. Just need a donor, so folks, if you’re out there and you have a spare set of hands. . . .”

Smith, however, struck it in rich in the second quarter. He accepted a bouncing ball off the defense of safety Martin Bayless for an interception at the New Orleans’ 49-yard line.

Smith, who has 15 career interceptions, replaced linebacker Henry Rolling on the first-team defensive unit after Rolling left the field in the first quarter with an ankle sprain.

Running back Eric Bieniemy had waited 10 weeks for his first carry in the NFL, but when Butts left the game in the first quarter, Bieniemy got the call.

Bieniemy ran right for two yards on his first carry in the pros--but hold on there--it didn’t count.

The officials penalized tight end Derrick Walker for holding, and check the final stats--it’s as if Bieniemy never played.

“That’s cold,” Bieniemy said. “But I got in there.”

Bieniemy became the team’s most active cheerleader when he took the field on special teams, and the crowd responded with loud cheers when he began waving his arms.

“The only thing you can do is have fun,” Bieniemy said. “I think the team played with more excitement today than they have had all year. I think that was the key to the victory.”

Friesz completed 16 of 30 passes for 175 yards against the bruising Saints defense, and has led the Chargers to back-to-back defeats.

So can it be said, “Friesz has arrived.”

“I think it’s too early to say you’ve arrived,” Friesz said. “I’m not sure in this game you ever truly arrive until you do things like (Joe) Montana has done and that’s win the big games consistently.

“But it was a good step in the right direction.”

Just for old time’s sake. In the second quarter former San Diego State team captain, Jim Wilks, decked Friesz for a seven-yard sack. Wilks was a 12th-round draft choice of the Saints in 1981.

Rookie safety Stanley Richard’s meeting with New Orleans rookie Fred McAfee in the fourth quarter is one he probably won’t forget.

Richard came up to hit McAfee on a sweep and took the brunt of the contact. “We were both we running hard and when I made contact with him, I had my shoulder on his,” Richard said. “My neck took the entire force of the blow. I couldn’t feel anything. I wanted to get up, but there was a lot of pain.”

Officially, Richard’s injury is called a stinger. He said he expects to play Sunday against the New York Jets.

Craig McEwen (knee) and Kitrick Taylor (knee) also suffered injuries, but the severity of them won’t be known until today.

Defensive end Burt Grossman said the defense received some help from an old friend in the Saints’ final drive--the crowd. He blamed the crowd noise for two New Orleans illegal procedure penalties that left the Saints in a second and 20 situation.

“I couldn’t believe Walsh went into the shotgun,” Grossman said. “He couldn’t hear anything and those penalties really made it easier on us.”

Grossman lent a helping hand too--recording his third solo sack of the year and pressuring Walsh throughout the game.

“I hit him about seven or eight times,” Grossman said. “That’s the best I’ve rushed the passer this season.”

Cornerback Gill Byrd had his seventh interception and was on his way to the end zone and no doubt to the Pro Bowl when the officials applied the brakes.

Byrd’s second-quarter interception was wiped out because the officials ruled that New Orleans’ tackle Richard Cooper had moved prior to the snap. The false start officially put an end to the play before it began.

On the following snap Walsh was sacked, he fumbled and Chargers nose tackle Joe Phillips recovered at the New Orleans’ 21-yard line. One problem: Linebacker Junior Seau was found guilty of stepping offside, so the Chargers had to give the ball back to the Saints.